Nico Rosberg capitalised on Sebastian Vettel’s late retirement and an earlier Lewis Hamilton blowout to win a dramatic British Grand Prix at Silverstone.

Red Bull’s world champion Vettel, who had benefitted from pole-sitter Hamilton’s eighth-lap tyre blowout, led with ten laps remaining but his hopes of extending his world championship lead suffered a setback when he stalled with gearbox failure that ended his race.

Hamilton’s Mercedes team-mate Rosberg took advantage to take the lead and held on during a thrilling finale to claim victory by just 0.7 of a second ahead of Mark Webber, who recovered from an early collision with Romain Grosjean.

Fernando Alonso brilliantly overtook Kimi Raikkonen with two laps left to take third and close the gap on Vettel in the drivers’ standings to 21 points.